Russian border guards detain Georgian near South Ossetia

TBILISI, DFWatch–Russian border guards have detained two more locals on the de facto border with South Ossetia while several people detained during the last few weeks still remain in detention.

According to locals, armed Russian border guards took Zaza Khidasheli and Malkhaz Edisherashvili while they were in a field looking after cattle in Tsitelubani.

They said the detainees didn’t cross the so-called administrative border, but the guards approached them and took them, allegedly to Tskhinvali prison.

EUMM is aware of this latest incident, while the Interior Ministry together with EUMM representatives started new negotiations to try to get the detainees released.

Rostom Sosiashvili, who was detained a few weeks ago, remains in Tskhinvali. The Interior Ministry plans to again raise the issue of detentions at the next meeting of the Incident Prevention and Reaction Mechanisms (IPRM), which will take place today, June 21.

As reported earlier, family members say that Sosiashvili suffers from tuberculosis and they are concerned that he still hasn’t been released.

The reason given by Russian border guards for detaining locals is often that someone had crossed the border. A few weeks ago they moved the border 300 meters into Georgian-controlled territory.